Church's 'wall of silence' saw boys abused

The Catholic church oversaw a "wall of silence" at a southeast Queensland youth home where boys were abused, a court has heard.

Four boys, aged 12-15, were abused over three years at Boystown in Beaudesert in the 1980s by their teacher Stephen Anthony Gray.

While they would sometimes wake up to an exposed Gray molesting them and were made or paid to have sex with him, they feared beatings or being ignored if they spoke up.

"That no doubt emboldened you," Brisbane District Court Justice Brad Farr said while sentencing the 62-year-old.

"You used these boys for your own perverse, sexual pleasure with little to no regard to their well-being."

Gray, a former social science teacher and cricket coach, was already serving jail time for two child abuse convictions when he was handed a six-year jail term on Thursday after pleading guilty to abusing the four boys.